The Summary of Physics Restored

129Those who penetrate the matter through a deeper investigation will acknowledge earth as this world’s womb, the vessel of generation, the mother of a manifold and almost innumerable offspring. At the beginning of creation, freed from the dominion of waters floating above her and made her own mistress, she remained arid and dry. Her body grew denser and took its place at the work’s centre as its foundation, providing an open field for plants and animals. Yet to become fit for generation in such abundance, she needed moisture. Divine wisdom provided for this need: water was made volatile from the beginning so that it might be raised into vapours, which, condensed into a cloud by cold, would again be dissolved into water by warmth. Through this artifice of the divine mind, earth’s fertility was provided for; dryness, which threatened barrenness, was tempered with abundant moisture, and the mother’s womb made fertile. Water alone, therefore, circulates to irrigate earth’s bosom—or, more precisely, is distilled in the lower region of air as in an alembic. Enriched through cohobations and repeated distillations, it acquires the powers of higher and lower things; imbued with heavenly nectar, it more effectively softens earth’s bosom and impregnates it with a power productive of offspring. The supreme maker of things, who uses Nature as his art, added nothing superfluous to his work and left nothing wanting.